azalea bonsai

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During my regular get together with Gerry we carried out some seasonal pruning on his large azalea bonsai. This is how it looks at the moment.

The ramification has developed well in just 3 years. Here are some photographs which illustrate that. The next one was taken in 2015, when we decided to air layer the top to bring the apex in line with the trunk base.

We did a little work this week on a large Kaho Azalea, which belongs to my friend Gerry. Gerry acquired this tree 2 years ago. It has a fantastic nebari but the apex was moving in the opposite direction to the lower trunk. We decided at an early stage that this had to be corrected.

The apex was air layered last year and removed from the tree at the start of this season

This is how it looks at the moment after some shaping and pruning of the foliage. I think it is looking a lot better now. It still needs more extension on lowest right hand branch and the branches on the left could be shortened a little more but that will come in time.

Here are a few photographs from yesterday’s monthly meeting of the Lanarkshire Bonsai Club held at Wattston Bonsai. It’s still a little cold here to begin re-potting so while we wait for Dougie’s new stock to arrive from Japan ( it’s expected next week ,by the way), most work was confined to pruning and wiring.

This large kaho azalea is looking particularly good at the moment. I’m looking after this tree for my friend Gerry, who is on holiday and will miss this. This is the tree that I featured in a post last month, which is having it’s top air layered.

My friend Gerry brought this large azalea bonsai over to my place this week to get some advice and to begin the work of shaping it into a really nice bonsai.

The first picture was taken last year on the day he acquired it from Wattston Bonsai. This is a fantastic tree with a terrific nebari but it has some issues. The movement at the top of the trunk is going in the opposite direction to the movement at the base.

The first task was to get it firmly planted in a suitable training pot. This was done last year at the time of purchase. The next picture shows Gerry with the tree immediately after we re-potted it.

One year later, it’s firm in the pot and it’s put on a lot of new growth also. Now is the time to take action to correct the unnatural movement in the trunk.

The next picture shows the impressive nebari which is the best feature of this tree.

The main trunk has to be reduced in height to correct the natural movement of the tree. The top of the trunk will make an interesting tree in its own right, so rather than cut it off, we have decided to air layer it.

The lower branches on the right hand side of the tree will be allowed to extend to accentuate the movement in the lower trunk

Close-up of the area that is being air layered. I will watch this air layer carefully throughout the remainder of the season and we plan to remove next year if all goes well.